Chocolate Mousse Cake (my birthday cake 2014)

 My delicious birthday cake,

 with minor tweaks on the decoration department :)

(Original recipe by Marry Berry "100 cakes and bakes")

Cake tin needed:

• a deep, round 23 cm (9in) loose-based tin

Ingredients:

• 25 gr (1 oz) butter
• 6 extra large eggs
• 175 gr (6 oz) caster sugar
• 100 gr (4 oz) self rising flour
• 25 gr (1 oz) cocoa powder
• 2 level tbsp corn flour

For the mousse filing:

• 175 gr (6 oz) plain chocolate (39% cocoa solids) broken in to pieces
• 2 tbsp brandy
• 1 level tsp powdered gelatin
• 2 large eggs, separated
• 300 ml (10 fl oz) pouring double cream

For the decoration: (this part I skipped)

• 200 gr (7 oz ) plain chocolate (39% cocoa solids) broken in to pieces
• 150 gr (5 oz)white chocolate, broken in to pieces
• 150 ml (5 fl oz) pouring double cream, whipped 

Step One

 Preheat the oven  to 180 C / Fan 160 C/gas 4. Lightly grease the tin and line the base with greased non-stick baking parchment.

Step Two

 Heat the butter gently in a small pan until melted. Leave to cool slightly. Whisk the eggs and sugar together until the mixture is pale and creamy and thick enough to leave a trail when the whisk is lifted from the mixture.

Step Three

 Sift the flour, cocoa, and corn flour together. Fold half of the flours into the egg mixture and fold in. Gradually fold in the remaining flours and then the butter. Pour into the prepared tin.

Step Four

 Bake for 35-40 min until well risen, firm to the touch ad beginning to shrink away from the sides of the tin. Turn out onto a wire rack and leave to cool. Cut the cake in half horizontally and place the bottom half back in the clean tin.

Step Five

 Melt the chocolate and brandy slowly in a bowl over a pan of hot water. Sprinkle the gelatin over 1 tbsp of cold water in bowl and leave for abut 10 min. Stand the bowl in a pan of hot water and allow to dissolve. Stir the egg yolks into the slightly cooled melted chocolate mix. Whip the cream until it just stands in soft peaks, then fold into the chocolate. Stir in the dissolved gelatin. Whisk the egg whites until stiff and gently fold in.

Step Six

 Pour the mousse on top of the cake in the tin, level the surface and top with the remaining cake. Cover and leave to set in the fridge. Make the chocolate curls from the chocolates(with a potato peeler or a knife). When the mousse is set, ease around the sides of the mouse with a knife the remove the cake from the tin and place onto a serving plate. Cover with whipped cream and sprinkle over the chocolate curls.

yummy :)